Queen’s own bling set for Jubilee show

A DAZZLING exhibition of royal gems being staged to mark the Queen’s 60-year reign will feature jewellery made from the world’s largest diamond.

The major display will reunite for the first time seven of the nine principal stones cut from the Cullinan Diamond.

The gems are set in brooches, a ring and a necklace, many of which have been worn by the Queen throughout her reign, while the remaining two stones form part of the Crown Jewels.

In a tribute to the monarch’s Diamond Jubilee, the Royal Collection is mounting the celebration of the gems, charting their association with British monarchs during the last 200 years.

The exhibition, which will be the focal point of Buckingham Palace’s 2012 summer opening, will include an unprecedented display of some of the Sovereign’s personal jewels.

At the heart of the display are the gems from the Cullinan Diamond, which weighed 3,106 carats in its rough state when discovered at a mine near Pretoria in South Africa in 1905.